Re: Tool to test/preview Grub2 themes?

[Sebastian Pipping]

Hello again!


On 12.01.2015 04:18, Andrei Borzenkov wrote:
>> I am wondering if there is a tool for Grub2 theme creators that they
>> could run to see their theme in action
>>
>>  * without rebooting their machine for each iteration or
>>
>>  * need to prepare bootable machine images manually.
>>
>> Is there such a thing?
> 
> Not that I'm aware of. I think using VM is the most straightforward.

I built a tool [1] to do that now.


It creates a minimal sparse bootable image, copies the theme in and
starts KVM.  It's basically the steps from my 2012 blog post [2] turned
into a tool [1].

Before using the tool, be warned that:

 * it is alpha/beta software that

 * needs root permissions in some part (calling sudo)

 * so I don't take any warrenty for anything right now!


This is how to make it preview the Archxion theme, as an example:

  git clone https://github.com/hartwork/grub2-theme-preview.git

  git clone https://github.com/Generator/Grub2-themes.git

  cd grub2-theme-preview

  ./grub2-theme-preview ../Grub2-themes/Archxion/


The current usage is:

  # ./grub2-theme-preview --help
  usage: grub2-theme-preview [-h] [--image] [--grub-cfg PATH]
                             [--version] PATH

  positional arguments:
    PATH             Path of theme directory (or image file) to preview

  optional arguments:
    -h, --help       show this help message and exit
    --image          Preview a background image rather than a whole
                     theme
    --grub-cfg PATH  Path grub.cfg file to apply
    --version        show program's version number and exit


More polishing and packaging soon.

I'm looking forward to your patches and bug reports!

Best,



Sebastian


[1] https://github.com/hartwork/grub2-theme-preview.git
[2] https://blog.hartwork.org/?p=1807